Evolving needs and rising expectations are prompting special districts to replace aging technologies and digitize manual processes.
The Fall Special Districts Summit, a live virtual event held on Sept. 21, offered a real-world look at how districts are building network platforms for the future, launching new digital services and reimagining how work gets done. The entire session is available online. Following are highlights from the participating districts.
ENTERING A NEW ERA OF CONNECTIVITY
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA), which manages intercity passenger rail service in northern California, is modernizing the network that powers passenger information displays at train stations. In the future, this network will also provide the foundation for new passenger services.
“The goal of the modernization is to improve the quality and reliability of our customer communications and minimize down time,” said Shirley Qian, principal planner for CCJPA and leader of the project. “Because of the importance of the system to passenger information and ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance, we need that reliability. It can’t go down.”
The new network uses secure wireless and fiber network technologies to provide redundant connectivity throughout the system. It replaces aging and increasingly unreliable copper wire network circuits. AT&T will manage the network for CCJPA and provide leased equipment that is regularly refreshed.
“We didn't want to own the equipment, because a lot of times what happens is at the end of five years, you find out all the equipment is out of date,” Qian said. “We want constantly up-to-date equipment, and the leasing model helps us accomplish that.”
Devon Winthrop, an AT&T principal architect who is working on the project, says CCJPA is one of many special districts that are modernizing core operational technology to support future needs. “The ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach is going away,” he said. “Now organizations are exploring new connectivity options that can enable them to provide a better experience.”
Besides replacing traditional copper circuits with mobile and fiber technology, the new CCJPA network moves core computing to the cloud, Winthrop added. “It’s a complete reimagination of how this network can work — and it really opens up a lot of other opportunities.”
In the future, Qian expects the network to support new mobile ticketing options, public Wi-Fi connectivity and other rider services. “All of this requires good connectivity at our stations and across our operational system.”
TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER SERVICE
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which serves nearly 700,000 people in the city of Detroit, upgraded its customer portal to enable residents to conduct nearly all water department business online. Expansion of online services allowed the district to permanently close three physical service centers and dramatically increased customer satisfaction.
Although the department had a customer service portal prior to the pandemic, the site primarily supported digital payments, not complete transactions. To handle common issues like starting a new water service, replacing a water meter or reporting a sink hole, residents needed to visit an office in person.
That changed when the department’s customer service staff shifted to remote work during the public health lockdown. Initially through phone-based interactions and then through a growing array of online transactions, the department transformed the way it serves residents.
“We changed our approach from telling people to make an appointment to come and see us, to just go online and complete the service yourself, said Matthew Phillips, chief customer service officer at the department.
Currently 80 percent of all customer transactions can be completed online, and Phillips expects to offer the remaining services online by the end of the year. The department’s mobile-friendly customer portal lets residents use a smartphone to snap images of drivers' licenses, Social Security cards and other necessary documentation and submit them electronically.
“We weren’t afraid to try something and then make changes as we moved forward,” Phillips said. “We also listened directly to what our customers had to say. Traditionally we tended to listen to our district offices, but they may only see a small portion of our population that wants to visit an office. It turns out our customers were saying, 'Can’t you just put this online?’”
Meeting those expectations significantly improved customer satisfaction.
“Our customer satisfaction rate is 80 percent today, and the industry average for utility companies is 72 percent,” he said. “We also resolve 75 percent of customer issues on the first visit. That used to be 30 percent.”
The move to online self-service had a similar impact on internal efficiency. Face-to-face transactions that took an average of 25 minutes to complete are now done online in less than 10 minutes, according to Phillips.
“It really changed the way we do business,” he said. “And it has allowed us to transform and continue adding new services.”
ELIMINATING ACCESS BARRIERS AND STREAMLINING OPERATIONS
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which provides public transportation in the greater Boston area, is using new technology to make it easier for residents to apply for reduced-fare programs while streamlining internal administration.
MBTA has rolled out user-friendly and accessible digital application processes to help riders apply for programs that provide discounted fares for low-income youth, senior citizens and residents with disabilities.
“Some people prefer to come into an office to apply for that help, and we’re proud to offer that option, but others really expect this to be a digital process,” said Emily Balkam, an MBTA product manager focused on improving access to transit. “It was really important to us to build out technology to support the needs of these riders.”
The new digital options are proving popular with residents. For example, an accessible digital application process launched last fall for MBTA’s Youth Pass, a reduced-fare program for low-income youth, has increased participation by nearly 150 percent so far this year.
And for seniors or residents with vision or mobility issues, digital processes significantly lower barriers to applying for these programs. “It's a big hardship for some of our riders to visit an office in the middle of our city that may be located in a subway station to apply for access to reduced rates,” Balkam said.
Security and accessibility were fundamental requirements for the new digital services. The processes are designed to protect riders’ personal information, which may include health details required to determine eligibility. They also work with accessibility tools like screen readers and offer information in multiple languages.
Internally, the new services digitize and streamline administrative processes, reducing staff workloads and delivering physical fare cards to eligible riders faster.
Previously, to create fare cards for senior riders, volunteers at senior centers snapped images of residents, burned those images onto CDs and mailed them to MBTA, where images were then transferred from CDs to USB drives and eventually used by the authority’s fulfillment center to create fare cards. Now, digital images are uploaded to cloud-based software which can be directly accessed by the fulfillment center, speeding up card production.
Similarly, MBTA’s Youth Pass process automatically routes completed applications to program administrators at municipalities in MBTA’s service area to determine eligibility. It also simplifies management of the program for these municipal partners.
“As with any agency that's been around a long time, we had legacy systems or processes that were created 10 or 15 years ago and hadn’t been updated — and that creates a lot of administrative burden on the folks doing this work,” Balkam said. “Modernizing these processes lets people focus on increasing access and awareness to these programs instead of card fulfillment.”
FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE SUCCESS
After several years of pandemic-related disruption and crisis response, district leaders are confronting a new challenge: Determining what the future will look like — and understanding its long-term impacts on people, processes and technologies. These districts are building the foundation for better service, efficiency and agility for the years ahead.
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